Harlow's Weekly (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 14, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 26, 1917 Page: 9 of 16
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HARLOW’S
WEEKLY
9
done in nominating a candidate for governor, why not
apply it to all the other offices that are to be filled from
time to time? By that means the state could have one
continual round of elections and that would add to
the gaiety of politicians if not to that of nations.
The truth is that no one has yet devised a means
of nominating candidates for office that is entirely
satisfactory. Certainly the Oklahoma City newspapers
have not even suggested anything that would meet with
general approval. Since these newspapers are not more
interested than others, why should they worry about it?
The preferential primary has had the open
support of Senator Owen, and Mr. Murray’s re-
cently published program is probably to be con-
strued as favoring such a method. Little news-
paper support has come to the Times, but it seems
likely from all the circumstances that the prefen-
tial primary idea will have steadily increasing im-
portance.
City Rivalry Considerable rivalry is being
Develops manifested between Oklahoma
Over Bank City and Tulsa over the location
.of a branch federal reserve bank.
Oklahoma City interests, in asking for the loca-
tion of the bank, urged that Oklahoma City is the
financial, commercial and geographical center of
the state. Newspapers at Tulsa, particularly the
Tulsa Times, speaking for Tulsa financial and
commercial organization, disputes the assertions
that Oklahoma City is the financial and commer-
cial center of the state. The Times, under the
heading “Making Fraudulent Claims,” says:
Oklahoma City is making shamefully fraudulent
claims in the effort to secure the branch feedral re-
serve bank. “It should be located at Oklahoma City,”
says one of the newspapers there, “which is the bank-
ing, business and trade center of the state, as well as
the state’s geographical center.’’
Oklahoma City lacks considerable of being the
\ banking center of the state—about $15,000.(MH> of it. It
is not the trade center, for that is divided between
Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Aside from these two glaring errors the statement
is practically correct. Oklahoma City is the geograph-
ical center of the state—or somewhere near it. Bank
ing is not done on geographical lines altogether, how-
ever. Business has a great deal to do with it and
should have something to do with the location of the
branch federal reserve bank. The location of this bank
will not be made on illusory statements in the news-
papers. They will not have much bearing, it is gen-
erally conceded. If they had influence in commercial
and banking affairs. Oklahoma City would indeed be
the banking, business and trade center of the state.
Friendly as all Tulsa people are to Oklahoma City,
they resent it when that place is put above the real
banking and financial center ns is done in this case.
The contention seems to be based on just
what is meant by the “financial center.” If it
means the city where the banks have the largest
individual and corporation deposits, Tulsa is in
the lead by several million dollars. If it means
the city where the largest number of banking
transactions are recorded each business day, then
Oklahoma City has considerably the advantage of
Tulsa, with a considerably larger daily clearance
of checks. If it means the city where deposits of
other cities of the state are placed, the record is
not so clear, requiring a computation of deposits
in state and national banks in the two cities to
decide the controversy. Such computation has not
/been made by the contenders of either city. Con-
sequently a considerable part of the efforts of
newspapers of both cities can be called wasted.
In Tulsa bank deposits are abnormal. It is
the oil capital of the world. No other city has
anything like the oil business that Tulsa has. No
matter in what field big operators work, in some
way this work is directed from Tulsa. Often the
money of the operator is checked from a Tulsa
bank. Even the great life and fire insurance
companies of the east do not carry greater cash
accounts than is often carried by some of the big
oil operators at Tulsa. Therefore Tulsa deposits
mount skyward. They are and nave been the sub-
ject of comment in the financial circles of the
United States. One Tulsa bank shows over $20,-
000,000, within fourteen millions of me total bank
deposits of Oklahoma City. On the other hand,
the capital city has a larger list of depositors.
HARLuW'S cannot categorically state that more
outside cities transact tneir business through re-
serve banks here than Tulsa, although that claim
has been frequently made, and, so far as known,
has not been refuted. The question of which city
is the financial center is therefore largely one of
what point of view one takes as to what really
constitutes such center, it may also be added
that the location of the reserve bank may depend
much upon the cities of surrounding trade terri-
tory. In this connection, Muskogee, Okmulgee.
Henryetta, Sapulpa and other industrial centers
seem to be arrayed on the side of Tulsa, while the
capital city has to depend for support on the
cities from the great agricultural districts of
the state.
In a limited way the rivalry between the two
cities is analogous to the rivalry which long ex-
isted between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. For
years St. Louis refused to recognize Kansas City
as a commercial rival, and although St. Louis did
not pass into second place from a commercial
standpoint, Kansas City did become fixed in the
public mind as one of the great commercial cen-
ters of the middle west.
AT Pawhuska the chamber of commerce has asked the
city authorities to call an election at which the citizens
may vote on the question of issuing bonds for the purpose
of developing municipal gas. Two months ago the city se-
cured from the Osage Indian tribe and the secretary of the
interior an oil and gas lease on 19,680 acres of land near
Pawhuska. The securing of the lease was the result of a
dispute between the city and Pawhuska Oil and Gas Com-
pany, relative to the company’s right to increase the price
of gas furnished citizens, and also the company’s right to
furnish the gas by meter rate instead of al a flat rate as
provided in the company’s franchise. In the suit that fol-
lowed, the company was sustained by the corporation com-
mission and the supreme court in its effort to make the
changes. One revision in th elease secured by the city is
that $2,500 must be expended in developing the lease before
January 17, 1918.
Pawhuska apparently is following Muskogee's lead in
installing a municipal gas pipe line. The line at Muskogee,
although not originally intended to be a profit earning en-
terprise for the city, has through unexpected conditions be-
come a net revenue earner. ,
Pawhuska is much closer than Muskogee to a gas sup-
ply and the construction of a pipe line will be at a modi
cum of the cost faced by Muskogee.
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Harlow, Victor E. Harlow's Weekly (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 14, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 26, 1917, newspaper, September 26, 1917; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1600849/m1/9/: accessed July 12, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.